Biography

The Iowa Suffrage Memorial Commission was organized "to commemorate the efforts of the Pioneer Suffragists and the long procession of workers who helped to secure the final enfranchisement of women." The commission succeeded in having a bas relief in bronze erected in the state capital building in Des Moines; it was unveiled on May 10, 1936. The work was sculpted by Nellie V. Walker, a native of Moulton, Iowa. The commission also worked with Edgar R. Harlan, a state historian, to preserve documentation of the Iowa women's suffrage movement. After its incorporation in 1922, the commission's first president was Lola B. Miller, who served until she moved to California; thereafter she was president emeritus. Mary Ankeny Hunter of Des Moines was president from 1930 to 1936. Carrie Chapman Catt of New York City, Rev. Eleanor E. Gordon of Hamilton, Illinois, and Mrs. H. K. Evans of Corydon, Iowa were named honorary presidents. The commission's headquarters was located in the Historical Memorial and Art Building in Des Moines. The final business meeting of the commission of seven was named to make a cabinet available in the historical building for the preservation of documents relating to the suffrage movement in Iowa. Iowa was the first state to create a memorial of this type.

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